Ellemir demanded.
"I'm sorry," Carr said humbly. "I don't know a thing about it. Your sister had a
dreadful time trying to explain even that much to me, and I'm still not sure
I've got it straight. If what I say isn't accurate, it's not because I'm lying,
it's because I just don't have the language to put it in. I seemed to understand
it when Callista was telling me about it, but it's something else to try to tell
it in your language."
Ellemir's face softened a little. "I don't think you're lying, Ann'dra," she
said, again mispronouncing his name in that strange soft way. "If you'd come
here with some evil purpose, I'm sure you could tell much better lies than
those. But anything you can tell us about Callista, please try to say it
somehow. Has she been hurt, did she seem to be in pain, had she been
ill-treated? Did you actually see her, and how did she look? Oh, yes, you must
have seen her if you recognized me."
Andrew said, "She did not seem to be injured, although there was a bruise on her
cheek. She was wearing a thin blue dress, it looked like a nightgown; no one in
her right senses would have worn it out-of-doors. It had-" He closed his eyes,
the better to visualize her. "It had some kind of embroidery around the hem, in
green and gold, but it was torn and I could not see the design."
Ellemir shivered faintly. "I know the gown. I have one like it. Callista wore it
to bed the night we were-raided. Tell me more, quickly!"
"Proof of the truth of his tale," Damon said. "I saw her, only for an instant,
in the overworld. She still wore that nightdress. Which tells me two things. He
has in fact seen Callista. And-a little more ominous-she cannot, for some
reason, although she walks in the overworld as if it were her own courtyard,
clothe herself in anything more suitable, even in thought. When I have seen her
before this in the overworld, she was clothed as befits a leronis- a sorceress,"
he added to Andrew, in explanation, "in her crimson robes, and veiled as a
Keeper should be." He repeated, unwillingly, what Leonie had said: "If she were
drugged, or entranced, or her starstone taken from her, or if she had been so
ill-treated that her mind had darkened into madness-"
"I can't believe that," Andrew said. "Everything she did was too-too sensible,
too purposeful, if you will. She guided me to one specific place, in the
blizzard; and she came back again, so she could show me where to find food that
had been stored there for emergencies. I asked her if she was cold, and she told
me it was not cold where she was. Also-when I saw the bruise on her face-I
asked, and she told me she had not been hurt or really ill-treated."
Damon said, `Try to remember everything she said to you."
"She told me that the herdsman's hut where I sheltered from the storm was not
more than a few miles from here. What she said was, she wished she were there
with me in body, so that when the storm was over, in a little while she could
be-" he frowned, again trying to remember a communication which now seemed to be
more in thoughts than words-"warm and safe and at home."
"I know the place," Damon said. "Coryn and I slept there, when we were boys, on
hunting trips. It is something, that Callista could come there in thought." He
rowned, trying to add it all up. "What else did Callista say to you?"
It was after that, that I woke and found her sleeping almost in my arms, Andrew
thought, but I'm damned if I'm going to tell you about that. That's strictly
between me and Callista. And yet, if some random thing she had said to him might
give Damon a clue to her actual whereabouts- He paused, irresolute.
Damon could clearly see the conflict in his face, and followed it more
accurately than Andrew would have believed. He said kindly, trying to spare him,
"I can well believe that alone in the dark, and both of you in strange and
hostile places, you may well have exchanged-" He paused, and Andrew, sensitized
to his mood, knew that Damon was searching for a
"I'm sorry," Carr said humbly. "I don't know a thing about it. Your sister had a
dreadful time trying to explain even that much to me, and I'm still not sure
I've got it straight. If what I say isn't accurate, it's not because I'm lying,
it's because I just don't have the language to put it in. I seemed to understand
it when Callista was telling me about it, but it's something else to try to tell
it in your language."
Ellemir's face softened a little. "I don't think you're lying, Ann'dra," she
said, again mispronouncing his name in that strange soft way. "If you'd come
here with some evil purpose, I'm sure you could tell much better lies than
those. But anything you can tell us about Callista, please try to say it
somehow. Has she been hurt, did she seem to be in pain, had she been
ill-treated? Did you actually see her, and how did she look? Oh, yes, you must
have seen her if you recognized me."
Andrew said, "She did not seem to be injured, although there was a bruise on her
cheek. She was wearing a thin blue dress, it looked like a nightgown; no one in
her right senses would have worn it out-of-doors. It had-" He closed his eyes,
the better to visualize her. "It had some kind of embroidery around the hem, in
green and gold, but it was torn and I could not see the design."
Ellemir shivered faintly. "I know the gown. I have one like it. Callista wore it
to bed the night we were-raided. Tell me more, quickly!"
"Proof of the truth of his tale," Damon said. "I saw her, only for an instant,
in the overworld. She still wore that nightdress. Which tells me two things. He
has in fact seen Callista. And-a little more ominous-she cannot, for some
reason, although she walks in the overworld as if it were her own courtyard,
clothe herself in anything more suitable, even in thought. When I have seen her
before this in the overworld, she was clothed as befits a leronis- a sorceress,"
he added to Andrew, in explanation, "in her crimson robes, and veiled as a
Keeper should be." He repeated, unwillingly, what Leonie had said: "If she were
drugged, or entranced, or her starstone taken from her, or if she had been so
ill-treated that her mind had darkened into madness-"
"I can't believe that," Andrew said. "Everything she did was too-too sensible,
too purposeful, if you will. She guided me to one specific place, in the
blizzard; and she came back again, so she could show me where to find food that
had been stored there for emergencies. I asked her if she was cold, and she told
me it was not cold where she was. Also-when I saw the bruise on her face-I
asked, and she told me she had not been hurt or really ill-treated."
Damon said, `Try to remember everything she said to you."
"She told me that the herdsman's hut where I sheltered from the storm was not
more than a few miles from here. What she said was, she wished she were there
with me in body, so that when the storm was over, in a little while she could
be-" he frowned, again trying to remember a communication which now seemed to be
more in thoughts than words-"warm and safe and at home."
"I know the place," Damon said. "Coryn and I slept there, when we were boys, on
hunting trips. It is something, that Callista could come there in thought." He
rowned, trying to add it all up. "What else did Callista say to you?"
It was after that, that I woke and found her sleeping almost in my arms, Andrew
thought, but I'm damned if I'm going to tell you about that. That's strictly
between me and Callista. And yet, if some random thing she had said to him might
give Damon a clue to her actual whereabouts- He paused, irresolute.
Damon could clearly see the conflict in his face, and followed it more
accurately than Andrew would have believed. He said kindly, trying to spare him,
"I can well believe that alone in the dark, and both of you in strange and
hostile places, you may well have exchanged-" He paused, and Andrew, sensitized
to his mood, knew that Damon was searching for a
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